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Eric Madison on Turning Truck Drivers Into Safety Champions · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:08
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:11
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:14
adversity. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and
0:17
today's guest is Eric Madison, Senior Vice President of People
0:21
and Safety at United Rd. Services found that in 1997,
0:26
United Rd. is a leader in vehicle transportation, moving
0:30
over 4 million cars each year across the US and Canada.
0:35
Now, Eric has spent more than 20 years in the transportation
0:38
industry, holding multiple senior leadership roles and
0:41
developing strong expertise in human resources, compliance and
0:46
safety. He earned his MBA in Human
0:48
Resources from Ashland University and holds a degree in
0:52
marketing and management from Western Michigan University.
0:55
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1:27
All right, back to our guest today, Senior VP, People in
1:30
Safety at United Rd. Eric Madison.
1:32
Thanks for making the time to Share your story today.
1:35
Well, thank you, Anthony. I appreciate the invite.
1:38
So Eric, you've got, by my count here, over 30 years of
1:42
experience in the transportation industry, what first drew you
1:46
into this line of work? Right.
1:49
It, it has been 30 years, hasn't it?
1:51
You think back on that and you start to feel a little bit old.
1:55
I would say that after college, my first real job was working a
2:01
doc, talking to a forklift operators and drivers in and out
2:06
and, and it felt like a good niche for me.
2:08
You know, I, I communicated very well with people doing the real
2:11
work, got promoted and really looked at trucking as a whole
2:18
to, to see that it could offer me the kind of challenges, the
2:22
diversity that I was looking for in a career.
2:25
And I just kind of ran down that path.
2:28
Growing up, were you in a blue collar kind of household and
2:32
neighborhood? Yeah, very much so.
2:35
My dad was a millwright, my mom worked in the school district,
2:39
and we were the the typical middle class family I would say.
2:44
Your dad was, did you say, an O, right?
2:47
A millwright. Oh, Millwright.
2:48
Yeah, millwright in a steel factory.
2:50
So if it broke, he had to fix it.
2:53
Great. So these were your people when
2:55
you got to the dock like these, you know, like, yeah, I'm home.
2:58
Like, let's go, guys. Absolutely.
3:00
And to to this day still is, you know, not a day goes by in my
3:05
current role that I don't talk to our car haulers, our
3:09
mechanics, you know, everyone from from top down in this
3:13
organization. And I want to hear more about
3:16
the work that you guys are doing at United.
3:18
But let's take a step back for a second.
3:20
And you spent about 14 years at Conway Truckload, kind of moved
3:26
your way from service center manager up to Director of
3:29
operations and Human resources. What was it about the quality of
3:34
the work that you were doing that helped you to ascend
3:36
through the ranks there? Yeah, I, you know, I loved my
3:41
time at Conway. It it was a great organization
3:44
and really that is where I, I came to grasp corporate culture
3:50
and, and what that means to, to employees myself certainly, but
3:56
everyone around me. So I found that when you have
3:59
that real strong culture like Conway did it, it was kind of
4:03
easy to excel. So that in, you know, and teamed
4:09
up with the the work ethic of my millwright father, you know, it
4:14
was, it offered a lot of opportunities, relocated a lot
4:19
with Conway and was able to just keep escalating my
4:27
responsibilities from the LTL organization right through to
4:31
the truckload organization. And, you know, handled just
4:35
about every facet of the business and had a lot of fun
4:37
doing so. And Conway, you weren't focused
4:40
like United is so much on moving specifically vehicles, but just
4:44
moving any kind of freight in general, is that right?
4:46
That's right. So Conway at the time had an LTL
4:50
less than truckload operation. So it was just general
4:53
commodities from something that you would say would be bigger
4:58
than UPS would carry to smaller than a full truckload.
5:02
So we were nationwide with the other Conway companies and and
5:07
then Conway truckload really focused at the time of taking
5:12
consolidated less than truckload shipments, moving them across
5:16
country so that they could then be delivered by the LTL
5:20
operation. I, I think in the, the couple
5:23
decades that have passed since I've been there that operations
5:27
probably changed a bit and they, they have been purchased as
5:31
well. XPO Logistics.
5:34
Gotcha. OK.
5:35
I'm going to spend the bulk of our conversation talking about
5:37
the work that you're doing now with United Rd. because
5:41
obviously you had some stops in between Conway and United, but
5:44
you've been with United for about 13 years.
5:47
How did that opportunity first come about?
5:49
Well, you know, it came from one of those stops in between.
5:52
So I, as I said, I, I bounced around the country a little bit
5:57
with Conway, which was great, great experience living in
6:00
different places. You really get to understand
6:02
different people when you live there, not just visit, right?
6:07
So did. You find some significant
6:09
cultural differences as you were kind of bouncing around the
6:12
country. Oh, absolutely.
6:13
Yeah. You know, I started in Michigan,
6:16
went to, went to upstate New York, spent some time in
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Vermont, New Hampshire, a couple stops in Ohio, then Memphis, TN.
6:27
And you know, just to, to draw a comparison, the, the people in
6:32
Memphis, TN, great people were very much different than the
6:36
people in Vermont. Also great people, but you know,
6:39
just different, different nature to the people.
6:43
And I, I found that to be very enjoyable, getting to know the,
6:50
the different kinds of people and they were really motivated
6:53
by different things, had different values, you know, none
6:57
better than the other, but just kind of came from a different
7:01
place when they came into the work workforce.
7:04
Gotcha. OK, Sorry I interrupted because
7:06
I was kind of curious, curious to hear like, you know, US is a
7:10
big place, but you know, what kinds of differences are you
7:12
actually seeing? But the the opportunity to join
7:14
United came about because, you know, one of these previous
7:17
stops, you were kind of moving around to different places in
7:19
the country. Yeah, so I was, I was looking to
7:23
get back to Michigan, actually. I have a couple kids that I
7:27
wanted to get in front of my parents more.
7:30
So as they were aging, it was difficult for my parents to come
7:35
visit us. So I thought, I'm I'm going to
7:36
get myself back to Michigan. So I did that with a recruiting
7:41
art outsource company. So the, the idea was to hire
7:46
truck drivers not just for small private fleets, but for trucking
7:50
companies as well. So I, I came up here where that
7:54
company was right in the backyard of where I was born and
7:59
started talking to other trucking companies across the
8:02
nation, but especially around here.
8:05
I met Kathleen McCann, the then CEO of United Rd.
8:10
So I worked with her quite a bit on some recruiting difficulties
8:14
that United Rd. was having at the time.
8:16
And I'll tell you, it didn't take long to really understand
8:20
that she embodied cultural leadership.
8:23
So I, I really enjoyed, you know, working with her and
8:28
inevitably, Anthony, I reached out to her and said, hey, I'd
8:31
like to be a part of your team. And she had a spot for me.
8:35
It's been fun ever since. And so where did you start in
8:38
the organization? So I started as director of
8:41
human resources. So when I came in, it was
8:44
strictly human resources. It was, it was a function that
8:50
had a very small department, some very strong people within
8:54
that department, but it wasn't necessarily given the credence
9:00
that it should be. As you know, as time goes on and
9:05
in the trucking industry changes and focus comes to corporate
9:09
culture. Kathleen, the new CEO at the
9:13
time, felt that she needed some strength within the department
9:18
to to grow it within the company.
9:21
So I was afforded the opportunity to do that and
9:25
pretty quickly picked up recruiting both drivers,
9:29
mechanics as well as all others in the organization.
9:33
And then a few years later I picked up the the safety
9:37
function at United Rd. So you mentioned that, you know,
9:41
even before you started working at United, you had some
9:46
interactions with Kathleen. You're kind of helping her with
9:48
some recruiting challenges. What was it that she was
9:53
displaying or exuding to you that showed that she really
9:57
embraced this idea of culture? You know, great question.
10:01
First and foremost, how she communicated with me and the
10:05
others within our organization, some of the meetings that we had
10:08
around recruiting and and how my firm at the time may be able to
10:12
help it. It involved several people in
10:15
the way that she talked to them, the way that she LED them, and
10:21
certainly the way that she described the people that she
10:24
wanted to attract the the drivers specifically that she
10:28
wanted to attract into the organization in how she thought
10:32
that we could attract those people.
10:34
And it, it was all cultural based.
10:38
And you know, I found opportunity with just the, the
10:41
mission and the core values written on the wall to really
10:45
ask about those. And and I could really see that
10:49
the the values in the mission were really used a united road
10:54
to inform their decisions. They weren't just something
10:57
pretty in a frame, but they were there for real use.
11:01
And that's what really drew me to to the company.
11:05
So how would you describe the culture there?
11:08
I would, I would say that at United Rd. you have a lot of
11:14
runway, you have a lot of runway to fly.
11:18
We have a very open, I would say trusting culture.
11:25
We have an open door policy. We're serious about the open
11:28
door policy. But the people of United Rd.
11:33
I can are encouraged to to be thoughtful, to think outside the
11:38
box as they say, to, to take challenges, to take risks in
11:44
there's there's an understanding that we all want to move forward
11:48
very quickly. Now, that said, we all work
11:51
really hard and that's part of the culture as well.
11:54
We have fun doing that together. So I would say that it's it's a
12:00
culture that really embraces collaboration and really does
12:04
stand by that open door. Would it be safe to say that it
12:08
is challenging in your industry and your work environment to
12:13
find and hold on to good folks and this is kind of what I hear
12:17
pretty much across the workforce today.
12:19
It true for you guys as well? It is, it is to a point, I would
12:24
say that we do a really good job of keeping people.
12:28
So when it comes to our car haulers and even our mechanics
12:32
to a lesser degree, we, we watch turnover closely.
12:36
You know, we calculate turnover rates everywhere else in the
12:39
organization. We really don't because we
12:42
really do hold on to people. And it's, it's the people of
12:46
United Rd. holding on to the people of United Rd.
12:51
So it's it's the kind of atmosphere that that people want
12:57
to be in that that makes people want to stay.
13:00
So what have you found? You've got years of experience,
13:05
Eric. Like what have you found has
13:07
been a successful strategy or approach 1st on the recruiting
13:12
side, kind of bring those people in and then once you've got
13:15
them, like you said, you're pretty successful at holding on
13:17
to them. What what is sort of the other
13:19
part of that formula that you guys have kind of figured out?
13:24
So I would say that the other part of that formula has to do
13:28
with, with a culture that's really open to, to just
13:36
experimentation and to, to giving people leeway.
13:39
That's really how we hold people.
13:41
Finding people I I believe is a little more difficult than it is
13:46
to to hold on to them. When we look just at the car
13:50
haulers, for instance, Anthony, car haulers are difficult to
13:55
find. So we are a trucking company by
13:57
nature, right? A car hauler is not just a truck
14:00
driver, a car hauler. I compare them to industrial
14:04
athletes. That's the the, the moniker that
14:07
I like to give them because it's a very difficult job.
14:10
They have to load and unload the cars.
14:13
I'm sure you've seen car haulers on the road without paying much
14:17
attention, but it's a, you know, the big skeleton looking trucks
14:20
with the cars hanging all over them.
14:21
Looks like they're about to fall off.
14:23
It's got like double. Decker cars sort of stacked and
14:26
weird sort of configurations, yeah.
14:28
Yeah, absolutely. They, they drive right up onto
14:31
on top of the trucks and there's, you know, miles of
14:37
hydraulic lines and it's very complex equipment to use.
14:42
And every load of cars is like a puzzle.
14:45
So you get different shapes, different weights, different
14:48
sizes of automobiles. And you got to fit them all in
14:51
together on these trailers without damaging them first and
14:54
foremost in doing such that they're safely loaded from a
14:59
weight perspective. So we can't just take a truck
15:03
driver and say here, load up these cars and take them cross
15:07
country doesn't work that way. There's a lot of training and
15:10
there's a lot of mental gymnastics that that these folks
15:14
have to do. So when we look to bring the
15:17
right people into the organization, we have to look
15:20
to, to find the, the, the experienced truck driver that
15:26
can make that leap to car hauler that can understand the, the
15:31
physical principles that that we employ when loading, when even
15:37
planning a load and then execute those really day after day in
15:45
any condition. You know, they always had that
15:48
adage about the post office delivering rain, snow, sunshine.
15:53
Well, it's same with car hall. Even when it's buckets of snow
15:56
or, or falling from the sky, we still have guys loading cars up
16:01
on onto the head rack of the truck.
16:04
So, you know, finding the right people to be able to train to do
16:09
that is difficult. And we've tried different things
16:12
along the path we have, we've done mechanical aptitude tests
16:17
to make sure that somebody has the the wherewithal to be able
16:21
to figure out that puzzle of. It's not like there's a
16:24
spreadsheet or a formula that they can just sort of plug in
16:27
what they've got and it tells them where to put each car.
16:31
No, it really does. So we have that kind of
16:34
technology that helps us put cars together for a load that
16:39
makes sense from a weight and a size function, but it doesn't
16:46
necessarily tell them What Car can go where because we also
16:50
have different types of equipment trailers that are laid
16:53
out a little bit differently than others.
16:56
So everyone is a puzzle that the driver has to figure out.
17:01
So you use the term industrial athlete is, is it rather
17:04
physical to sort of get these cars loaded up and configured in
17:08
the right way with, you know, adjusting the hydraulics and
17:11
whatnot? It it is setting up the the
17:14
truck to begin with with the hydraulics is challenging
17:18
mentally to drive the trucks, the cars, excuse me up onto the
17:23
trucks. Most guys hang out the window
17:26
because if you think about it, you're in your car, you're
17:29
holding the steering wheel you're not seeing your wheels
17:32
right. And when you're going up onto a
17:35
small track that goes up onto a trailer, these guys are actually
17:40
leaning out the window looking down at the the wheels of the
17:45
car to make sure they're lined up correctly.
17:48
So right off the bat you're you're and then you get a duck
17:52
back. In so you don't take your head
17:53
off as you go, you know, into the, the, the rig there, right.
17:57
Right. Yeah.
17:58
And, and when you get to the place where you wanna be, you
18:02
have to be able to get out of the car and the doors don't
18:06
always just swing wide open because the, the trailer itself.
18:10
So they have to, to kind of squeeze out.
18:13
And then they're, they're up high, they're on top of a truck
18:16
at that point. And they have to get to a
18:18
ladder, get down to, to a normal working height.
18:23
And then we use the the hydraulics to to lower the cars,
18:28
to strap them down and then raise them up.
18:32
So we've talked a lot about car hauling.
18:34
Is that the only thing that United moves?
18:37
Yes, we are 100% focused. On that.
18:41
Finished vehicle logistics, that is our gamut.
18:44
OK. So does your business sort of
18:47
rise and fall then with whatever's you know if the auto
18:50
market's hot or not? It does, it does.
18:53
And one of the ways that we've been able to attract and retain
18:57
drivers is diversification within our industry.
19:00
So it's still all finished vehicles, but we we have had
19:06
great success in moving used cars as well as new cars.
19:11
So we have contracts with all the major manufacturers and
19:14
that's, you know, a good portion of our business.
19:18
But we also move rental cars, we also move fleet cars.
19:22
Financial agencies move a lot of cars and even personally owned
19:26
vehicles. So if I am renting a car one way
19:31
instead of round trip, that's part of why it's costing me
19:34
extra to rent that cars because a lot of times they end up
19:38
putting it back on service like yours to get it back to its
19:41
original location. Yep, absolutely, absolutely.
19:45
And every year we can see fluctuations.
19:47
The, for example, the Masters, the golf tournament in Georgia,
19:52
right when that comes around, we have a lot of rental car agency
19:59
work that we do because they bring in so many cars, because
20:02
so many people come in for the Masters.
20:06
Fascinating. So even if there's a dip in, you
20:08
know, people buying new cars, you guys are still staying busy
20:11
because you've got used cars, you're moving rental cars around
20:14
there. There's other things that you
20:15
guys can do. Yeah.
20:17
And I'll, I'll tell you when I think back to the pandemic And
20:20
then right after the pandemic, of course, the auto
20:22
manufacturers experienced the the microchip shortage that
20:27
affected productivity greatly as well.
20:30
So during that time we really relied on a lot of the
20:35
remarketed cars that we moved and we had enough
20:39
diversification within our portfolio to keep our drivers
20:43
working. And another aspect of of United
20:46
Rd. that really suits our car haulers is we, we do supplement
20:52
a lot of our work with third party carriers.
20:55
So other trucking companies, small trucking companies that
20:58
that we can use to carry some of our customers freight.
21:03
So when volumes from an industry perspective decline for whatever
21:08
reason, you know we can kind of flex that work up and down and
21:14
still keep the drivers that are employed by or leased directly
21:19
to United Rd. working. I want to talk a little bit more
21:23
about everything that falls under your umbrella, Eric.
21:27
You're the senior VP, people and safety.
21:30
So the people part, I assume that's everything.
21:32
HR, you know, benefits, payroll, hiring, retention, firing, you
21:37
know, layoffs when it needs to happen.
21:40
Anything I'm missing there before we talk about what the
21:42
safety component means? No, I, I think that's about it.
21:47
But you're right, the whole gamut of everything that
21:51
everything that we need to do from a people perspective.
21:54
And then what is the safety component?
21:57
What? What are you doing there?
21:58
Yeah. So safety, we're a trucking
22:01
company. So you don't get much more
22:03
important than safety when it comes to a business, right?
22:07
We are a highly regulated industry.
22:10
You know, the Department of Transportation, Federal Motor
22:13
Carrier Safety Administration, they set out the rules and we
22:16
have to follow those. So a portion of our work and
22:22
safety comes from just the the core principle of keeping our
22:28
employees and our contractors and the general public as safe
22:32
as possible when they're out there on the roads.
22:35
And then the other part comes from being compliant with all
22:40
the regulations that we're faced with.
22:43
So we have to do things like monitoring our drivers, hours of
22:46
service. Every truck driver of a Class 8
22:50
truck, meaning the big tractor trailers that you see on the
22:53
road, they all have to record their hours.
22:56
They only have so many hours that they can drive that they
22:59
can work in total in prescribed hours between shifts.
23:04
So we have to monitor those types of things and, and make
23:07
sure that we're we're following all the rules.
23:09
That's what keeps our governmental operating authority
23:12
intact. And then what are the
23:15
geographies that you serve? Are you nationwide sort of lower
23:19
48 states? How's this?
23:20
Work. We're everywhere, including
23:23
Canada. OK.
23:25
Yep. So we're across the continental
23:27
US We have operation in Alaska as well.
23:31
Hawaii. No, no, OK, no.
23:36
We do move some cars over to Puerto Rico though.
23:40
Oh, interesting. OK.
23:43
Obviously you're using a a boat for part of that process to get
23:46
to get them over there. Yeah, same with Alaska too.
23:49
Most of them go by ship. And we?
23:51
Pick them up from the port and move them across that huge
23:57
state. Yeah.
23:59
What's the port that they head out of here from the States
24:01
typically or did you just sort of depend on who it is that
24:04
you're servicing? I, I really, I think that it
24:07
depends on who we're servicing. Yeah.
24:10
Now that makes a lot of sense, you know given from what I
24:16
understand United's reputation for leveraging technology, big
24:21
company of your size, can you describe a maybe cutting edge
24:25
tool or system that you have helped to introduce that has
24:29
really helped with sort of those daily operations or approved
24:32
compliance? Sure, absolutely.
24:36
So we have an operating system that we we currently use that
24:41
started at United Rd. It was spun off to another
24:44
company. We still use that operating
24:47
system. But our I say that to to just
24:50
say that our roots in technology in the finished vehicles
24:55
logistics space that run deep. So we've been focused in that
25:00
direction for quite some time now.
25:03
We really leverage technology to to build loads into to not
25:11
necessarily place which car in which space on the truck, but to
25:16
make sure that we're offering our drivers loads that that
25:21
makes sense for them, makes sense for the company.
25:24
So we optimize our routes very well.
25:27
We were able to offer drivers loads that go out and get a
25:33
return load back to stays loaded loaded as often as possible in
25:39
reducing our empty miles. And are you guys utilizing kind
25:43
of a combination of independent contractors as well as W twos?
25:48
We are, yeah. We have over 1200 trucks on the
25:53
road and they're roughly 5050 company owned trucks with
26:00
company employees in them and then leased equipment with
26:04
independent contractors. Yeah, Probably a pretty
26:08
effective model for you guys gives you a little bit more
26:11
flexibility that that you would need sort of with the ups and
26:13
downs, right? Yeah, it does work.
26:16
I would say that the our greatest flexibility really
26:20
comes with those third party carrier partners that we use.
26:24
Now those are different than our independent contractors.
26:28
An independent contractor in our business, in the trucking
26:31
business as a whole is leases equipment directly to our
26:35
operating authority. So we are accountable for all
26:40
the safety metrics of that truck.
26:43
We have to have the the proper equipment files for the
26:47
Department of Transportation and we have to monitor how that
26:51
truck is being driven. Where is a third party carrier
26:55
has their own operating authority and they have their
26:59
own trucking company as a whole and they can work for whoever
27:02
they want. Now our independent contractors
27:05
can also work for others, but we keep them with so much work in
27:11
in front of them that they really don't want to.
27:14
That's a good spot to be in. You know, you've had decades in
27:17
the industry. I'm curious how you've seen
27:20
transportation and logistics evolve.
27:23
What are some of the big changes that you've seen over the last
27:26
30 years? Yeah, there's, there's certainly
27:29
a lot more technology out there, especially when it comes to
27:33
telematics in how we manage safety.
27:39
But over my tenure, the the change that I've enjoyed the
27:43
most goes right back to my speaking about culture.
27:49
Trucking at one point had a real reputation for a, you know, a
27:55
bang on the desk kind of follow languages, OK, kind of
28:01
environment that that reputation came from a place, but that
28:04
place has been left. We really can see that
28:09
successful carriers communicate better with their people.
28:14
They put people first and that wasn't always the case, I would
28:18
say in our industry. So when I look over the, the
28:21
length of, of my career, the 30 plus years, I think I've seen
28:26
most change in that realm that, that we're doing a better job as
28:30
an industry of, of trying to, to give predictability to the, the
28:37
life of the driver. Because, you know, with routes
28:42
that could take you anywhere at any time and could take you out
28:45
on the road for certain, you know, weeks at a time.
28:50
We really as an industry put a focus on getting drivers home
28:54
when they need to be home in in just doing right by them,
28:57
communicating properly. This shift sort of in, you know,
29:02
culture and towards, you know, treating people better and not
29:05
so much like, you know, the fist on the desk kind of a thing.
29:09
Were there particular salient events like triggers that that
29:14
kind of like push things in that direction more quickly?
29:19
Or has this just been like a sort of gradual change over the
29:23
last few decades? You know, I'll bet that most
29:26
people would say that it was gradual and while the industry
29:31
didn't turn on a dime, we experienced and and frankly
29:35
still do a shortage in in qualified truck drivers.
29:39
But that really hit, oh, boy, what would it be?
29:43
Probably, probably 15 to 20 years ago, you know, the height
29:49
of it in, you know, the industry really came to the realization
29:54
that you, you can't turn through people and just expect more
29:58
people to appear. And then as time has gone, we've
30:03
had to to keep that close in mind because the people of the
30:07
United States have changed. You know, we have fewer and
30:11
fewer people that are willing to go out on the road.
30:15
They want to be home in their own beds, you know, every night.
30:19
And we really have to to make sure that we treat well those
30:23
that are willing to do the kind of work that we have to offer.
30:27
Are there any programs that either exist or that you've been
30:30
a part of that help to generate more interest in truck driving
30:35
as a career? You know, that's, that's an
30:41
interesting question because we've, we've tried with working
30:45
with truck driving schools before and we and we still do
30:49
currently. But attracting people into the
30:54
the trucking business is, I would say a nut that we as an
30:58
industry haven't figured out as well as we need to.
31:02
Any ideas that you've sort of kicked around in your head that
31:05
you might be like, I wish somebody would try this.
31:07
Yeah. You know, I really think that
31:09
the the focus has to be on predictability.
31:14
I've long thought this in, you know, part of the the difficulty
31:20
in doing the job of a truck driver is getting stuck out on
31:23
the road or just just being away from family, being away from
31:28
home. And all we can do to increase
31:32
the the predictability in the driver's life is going to be
31:36
helpful. Now, Eric, setting aside any
31:42
humbleness or humility, how would you characterize your own
31:46
superpower? Superpower, right?
31:50
I, I like that word. I, I would say that I will say
31:56
that my favorite tool in my toolbox is just that of clear
32:04
and a transparent communication. I really think that active
32:09
listening is vitally important and making sure that you're very
32:16
clear with your, your expectations, you know, of
32:19
yourself as well. I would say, Anthony, that
32:22
that's an important part that people sometimes overlook when
32:27
they think about clear, clear guidelines, clear expectations.
32:31
You have to know what you expect of yourself as well and be in
32:35
agreement with yourself and be able to bring that, that work
32:40
ethic every day with you. And that willingness to turn the
32:45
computer away, put the phone down, have the conversations you
32:48
need or take the, the phone calls late at night when a
32:53
driver may need something that you know, you, you may be a
32:56
little bit tired, but you have an agreement with yourself that
32:59
you're going to do this and you're going to serve the
33:01
community that you service. And that's, that's what I, I
33:06
think that I do. That's helped me in my career.
33:09
Well. That's good.
33:12
You know, I in my experience, growth often times comes through
33:17
the course of experiencing our biggest challenges in life.
33:19
Be curious to hear about a serious challenge that you faced
33:24
in your life, Eric, and how you got through it and what it what
33:26
you learned. Sure.
33:30
The trucking industry is fraught with challenges for sure.
33:36
But I would say if you, if you ask me, my biggest challenge, I
33:41
would say it was several years back, my wife was diagnosed with
33:47
multiple sclerosis and she's doing very well.
33:51
She's, you know, she's battling hard, but it changes life.
33:56
And I think it, it gave me a reason to, to pause.
34:02
We both had to, we both had to kind of adjust what we do, you
34:08
know, in our off time and you know, how we enjoy life.
34:12
We we had to focus on some different things And it, it
34:17
really makes you take stock of, you know, what you have and and
34:22
you know how you maintain it, what you should be doing with
34:24
your time. So I think that that that event
34:31
in in re establishing my commitment to make sure that
34:37
even though she bears, you know, the burden of this, I'm going to
34:42
be with her right by her side every second of the way.
34:46
And I think that that's, you know, somewhat invigorating as
34:49
well because it it allows you to replenish that kind of attitude
34:55
throughout all aspects of your life.
34:58
As you guys got the initial news and then, you know, spent some
35:03
time coming to terms with this, how did you navigate that?
35:10
Were there people in your life that you could lean on, maybe
35:14
faith that you know, became an important pillar to you and and
35:19
sort of making sense of what, you know, next steps kind of
35:23
look like? Sure.
35:25
Yeah, I would say the the the family seemed to get a lot
35:30
bigger real quick, which is a beautiful thing.
35:34
You know, my wife's always had wonderful cousins, a good
35:38
support system there. And, you know, our extended
35:42
family has really rallied close friends as well.
35:46
And you know, they, they can see the things that that we used to
35:51
do change. You know, we used to spend, you
35:53
know, every anniversary would be on the trail.
35:56
We would go backpacking. So we would go into the woods
36:01
and stay there for a week and come out and, and those are the
36:04
things that become more difficult.
36:06
And you know, as as that has changed over time for us, we've
36:11
been been able to fill it with other things and, and that a lot
36:17
of times focuses around family and friends.
36:21
What are some of the things that you've shifted into doing for
36:25
enjoyment? Can't do the trail like you used
36:27
to, but yeah, now what's the new thing that sort of fills the
36:30
space? Well, we, we do a lot of boating
36:33
now. So we we have a place in
36:36
Northern Michigan where we can get out in the water and you
36:40
know, we still keep ourselves outside side, just not the the
36:45
extreme kind of sports that maybe maybe were in our past.
36:51
And you mentioned before that you have kids.
36:53
How old are they? Oh gosh, they're plenty old now.
36:57
They go from 30 down to 21, almost 30, almost 30.
37:03
So you had one or more kids in the house when your wife's
37:08
diagnosis came about? Yes.
37:11
Mm hmm. And and how, how have the the
37:13
kids sort of come to terms with us?
37:16
You know, I, I think that, I think that they, they've reacted
37:23
very with, with strength. They've acted, reacted with a
37:29
lot of strength. You know, we're, we see him
37:34
constantly, although we have one that's out in Alaska, so we
37:39
don't see him as much, but active duty military.
37:43
So he gets some leave and, and we get him home on occasion.
37:47
But we're surrounded by him all the time, you know, even though
37:51
they're grown and out of the house.
37:54
Say a little bit more about how this whole experience is kind of
37:57
affected the way that I don't know, you view life in general.
38:01
You know, the kind of the ups and downs at work are the
38:03
personal struggles that, you know, maybe used to get you a
38:06
little bit riled up. Yeah, yeah, I I think there is a
38:10
lot to that. You know, it, it makes you
38:13
really focus in on the time that you have with the people that
38:18
you have in, in it makes so many problems that may have gotten my
38:26
dander up or seemed bigger than they were.
38:30
It makes it seem easy, you know, and it's, I, I think that I'm
38:37
better able to, to do the things that I need to do at, in my job,
38:45
you know, including taking those late night calls and, and just
38:51
being more tuned into the conversations that I'm having
38:55
when I'm having them. It's easy, you know, for, for
39:00
busy people to just get distracted.
39:02
You know, I would say early on in my career, you know, I'd be
39:07
doing an e-mail and someone come talk to me, but I wouldn't
39:09
really be doing what I should be doing, right.
39:14
So those kinds of experiences in life help you really kind of
39:17
tune into to what's important and keep focus.
39:23
If you had to recommend a helpful resource to our
39:27
listeners, something that you know has been constructive for
39:29
you, whether that's a course, a podcast, a book, what would that
39:33
be? Well, you know, you really have
39:38
me thinking about my wife and our challenges.
39:42
So I have to go that direction and say yoga.
39:48
So my, my wife is a trained yoga instructor.
39:52
That was her her plan for retirement.
39:56
And unfortunately, many years ago I had a back injury and a
40:00
subsequent surgery. And you know, I was always kind
40:04
of hands off on the yoga thing. It just didn't seem like a me
40:07
thing to do, right? And she was after me for a long
40:12
time to to try it, to just try it.
40:15
So finally I committed to giving her a month that she could show
40:20
me what to do and run me through classes.
40:22
And boy, I am addicted to that. It's been years now.
40:27
And that's how I start my day, every day.
40:31
Get your sun salutations going. Huh.
40:34
Yes, Sir. That's right.
40:35
You know, it keeps flexibility physically, it keeps strength
40:39
physically, but it does so much mentally, You know, it, it
40:43
allows me anyway to clear my, my mind every morning, you know,
40:47
I'll get up, have a cup of coffee and, and I will hit the
40:50
mat. And that's a good way for me to,
40:54
to, to step aside to, to refresh, reset.
40:58
I really, I, I have my focus through the day and that that
41:03
carries me through. So, you know, there's a lot of
41:07
great books out there, especially around culture and
41:10
around having productive conversations.
41:13
But I think the most impactful to me has has just been that
41:17
time on the yoga mat. Oh, that's great.
41:20
Yeah. Kind of curious to hear about
41:25
where United Rd. is going. Like we've talked a lot about
41:29
the services that you guys provide.
41:30
What's going on today? What do you think the future
41:32
holds? I think it's it looks great.
41:36
We've had a recent leadership change by design and you know,
41:42
our, our new leader has been with the company for a, a good
41:45
decade, knows it inside and out, highly driven and and we're
41:51
going to be continuing to lead people within the culture that
41:55
we have. And we're just going to keep
41:59
running hard and continue to hold on to our spot as, as the
42:05
the premier, you know, the largest finished vehicle
42:08
logistics provider in North America.
42:11
As you look to the future, what are some of the exciting changes
42:14
coming to either the business itself or the industry in
42:18
general that you're particularly excited about?
42:21
Yeah, you know, I really am excited about the the
42:24
developments in telematics. So especially safety systems
42:31
within the truck. So we have.
42:34
Sorry, real quick, just for our audience, explain the word
42:38
telematics. Sure, right.
42:40
We have systems within our trucks.
42:44
We have electronic logging devices which are required by
42:48
law. We have dash cams, we call them
42:52
event recorders in those, those systems hook right up to the,
43:00
the main brain in, in the, the truck itself and it report, it
43:05
reports on speed, it reports on on braking.
43:08
It gives us all sorts of diagnostics on how we're
43:12
performing on the road to keep our drivers in the general
43:16
public more safe. So some of the developments in
43:21
like dash cams, again, we call them event recorders for a
43:26
reason, because you know, they're there to to help us with
43:31
training, of course, but to exonerate our drivers.
43:34
And in the event of a crash where we're not at fault, but
43:39
they also give us a lot of instantaneous feedback on how we
43:44
are doing behind the wheel. You know it, it can alert
43:48
trucking company to driver fatigue.
43:52
You know, if somebody has to do a better job working at creating
43:57
following distance, for instance, in a truck that is so
44:02
important to to maintain spacing with the the car in front of you
44:07
and and all the cars around you. It gives us a lot of ability to
44:13
give feedback to the professional driver to make them
44:16
even better. And I think that our industry,
44:20
you know, across the board is accepting that more and more.
44:24
You know, when, when these kinds of things first come out,
44:26
there's a feeling of, well, that's kind of Big Brother ish,
44:30
you know, you know, why, why are you watching me drive?
44:33
Well, you know, if you think about it, you know, the, the,
44:37
the best of the best still have coaches, right?
44:40
You know, LeBron James still has a coach.
44:44
So even though you, you may be an expert at doing what you're
44:48
doing, you should always be coachable.
44:50
You should always be looking at how you're performing,
44:53
especially when you do something like driving, when you're on the
44:56
road for so many hours, it's important to always, you know,
45:01
keep your head in the game and, and the, the telematics, the,
45:07
the in cab warnings for following distance and those
45:10
kinds of things help keep us safer.
45:14
Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't ask about AI.
45:17
Is this yet playing a part in what you guys do in any way?
45:21
You know it, it's getting there. We're on the cusp of that.
45:26
AI is now being used to identify stop signs, red lights, those
45:31
kinds of things were one of the important things that our car
45:35
haulers do is simply wear a safety vest, right?
45:39
We're out loading and unloading sometimes in front of
45:43
dealerships on the road and what not.
45:45
And you know, we're looking at technology that that can even
45:48
identify when when we're not wearing safety vests in that
45:53
that takes AI to identify what is a safety vest, when should it
45:56
be worn And you know, how is it, how is it being applied in this
46:01
situation? So we're going to see more and
46:04
more developments like that with with technology then I'm super
46:08
excited about that. Yeah, as the VP of Safety, that
46:12
makes a lot of sense. This is this is your umbrella.
46:15
You want to keep your team in good shape.
46:17
So, you know, Eric, in my experience, a lot of times what
46:20
we perceive to be our mistakes in the moment later on, we look
46:24
back and realize we're actually some of our greatest teachers.
46:27
Curious if you can think of a a career moment that seemed like a
46:32
set back at the time but actually propelled you forward
46:34
when you look back on it now. Yeah, You know, that's kind of
46:37
an easy one for me because it it's it's kind of glaring even
46:44
as far behind me as it is in the rearview mirror.
46:48
Very early in my career, I was asked to do a presentation that
46:53
I would say that I was prepared for, but oh, boy, I did
46:58
terribly. I did terribly.
47:01
And and I would tell you, Anthony, I knew at the time that
47:06
probably my greatest weakness was public speech.
47:09
You know, small groups, one-on-one, everything's fine.
47:14
But speaking in front of groups, Oh, boy.
47:16
Yeah. I mean, I, I just couldn't do
47:19
it. So with that particular failure,
47:24
it really made me stop and, and, and say, Hey, if you're going to
47:29
take this career where you wanted to go, you got to fix
47:33
this. So I did Dale Carnegie course
47:37
and, and when I went back to school for my master's degree,
47:43
I, I found a school in Ashland University and a program at the
47:47
time, this was, you know, before all the online courses that you
47:53
can do today. But I, I found a course that had
47:57
every single class had major presentations in front of groups
48:00
of people. So I told myself, you're going
48:03
to do that and you're going to do it.
48:05
Well, you're going to get through that.
48:07
And you know, now I have no issue getting in front of.
48:10
Any pretty comfortable with it and, and lots more skilled at it
48:13
today, you know, and hats off to you because, you know, I, I've
48:17
heard some people say that, you know, according to surveys,
48:20
people fear public speaking more than death.
48:23
Like it is the, it is the most like they, they literally fear
48:26
that more than dying itself. And so, yeah, and, and I've kind
48:31
of gone through a similar arc myself, but you know, when you
48:33
have that fear, there's a natural human tendency to just
48:37
want to recoil from the thing that scares you so much.
48:40
You didn't do that like, you know, you realize that, hey, if
48:45
I want to go where I want to go on my career, this is a fear
48:48
that I've got to face and I've got to I've got to level up my
48:51
skills on this was there. I don't know, Is it just sort of
48:56
inborn in you that like you were kicking yourself in the rear to
49:01
do this? Was there sort of an external
49:03
force? Like I I'm always curious to try
49:05
to understand the difference between people who take that
49:09
fear and they face it and they grow because of it, and those
49:12
who recoil and never get that opportunity for that growth.
49:17
Yeah, that's I, I say that it, it came wholly internally, just
49:25
I, I remember the, the searing disappointment with myself in
49:30
that botched presentation. And, and just, you know, I, I
49:35
didn't, I didn't need anyone at that time to, to give me a push.
49:39
It was a, it was a stand in front of the mirror and say
49:44
you're either going to fix this or you're not going to do what
49:48
you think you're going to do for the rest of your life.
49:50
So you know, what are you going to do?
49:54
You going to go look for something else to do or you
49:55
going to fix this? Well, that was a no brainer to
49:58
me. I knew I had to fix it and I
50:00
knew there was a way to fix it because it couldn't possibly be
50:04
that you're either born with an innate ability to speak in front
50:09
of people or you're not. So it's got to be a trainable
50:13
skill. So I'm going to go figure that
50:14
out and you know, sure enough, the the work, especially at
50:18
Ashland, really. I was going to ask you because
50:21
I'm sure there are lots of people listening who are like,
50:23
yeah, I'm terrified of public speaking.
50:24
I avoided every chance, you know, and whenever I can.
50:28
You mentioned the Dale Carnegie course and the work at Ashland.
50:31
It sounds like the the work at Ashland was really what kind of
50:33
was the breakthrough for you? You know, it really was and, and
50:38
I can't necessarily point to any particular class or any singular
50:43
piece of advice that that I've heard.
50:46
You know, you always hear that picture people in their
50:49
underpants kind of thing. I, I don't know if that works or
50:53
not. Maybe it does for some.
50:54
That just gets me thinking about other things that that aren't
50:56
really helpful, so I stay away from that one.
51:00
Right, right. So I, I think that the only real
51:04
way to get on top of that fear is just to do it.
51:08
You know, if you're afraid of the water, then you have to wade
51:11
into the water and you have to eventually learn to swim.
51:15
Same principle. You're afraid to speak in front
51:18
of people. You better just get in front of
51:20
people. Yeah, I like that.
51:22
What's one thing you wish that more people understood about
51:25
your industry, Eric? You know, thinking you got me
51:31
all excited again about the telematics and, and, you know, I
51:34
was just talking about following distance.
51:37
If I could, if I could educate Americans as a whole, I would
51:44
have them understand not only the the difficulty in the job of
51:49
being a professional truck driver, but the, the intricacies
51:55
of controlling 80,000 lbs as it rolls down the the highway.
52:01
A lot of a lot of us, especially in congested areas, we see a
52:08
truck driver leaving safe following distance in front of
52:11
him as an invitation to come on in.
52:14
And you know, we as an industry, I believe handle that very well.
52:19
You know, a true professional truck driver will keep backing
52:22
down and keep that, that space as much as I can.
52:26
But you know, when, when the general motoring public
52:30
continues to just infringe on that, that safe operating space,
52:35
it it's not good for anyone. It slows everyone down and it
52:38
creates some very unsafe situations.
52:41
I mean, the, the event recorders that we have in our trucks
52:45
currently have exonerated us in many crashes.
52:50
And so many of them, unfortunately, are the actions
52:53
of people in passenger cars just just whipping in front of us.
52:58
And, you know, if I could get people to understand that and,
53:03
and really treat the truck driver on the road as they
53:08
should, we'd be a safer community overall.
53:11
You know, I'm so glad that you touched on this because it's
53:13
something that's occurred to me before.
53:15
You know, we're, everybody's in a hurry, we're trying to get
53:17
somewhere and there are these big slow trucks kind of
53:21
lumbering along that and they're taking up, you know, 4 car
53:24
lengths or whatever it is. And you know, they don't, you
53:28
know, they don't have the startup speed that, you know, a
53:30
smaller car would. It's not, you know, hauling
53:32
80,000 lbs. And like this thing's just
53:35
annoying. It's in my way without stopping
53:37
to think about, you know, the, the value, like the heroic value
53:41
that they're providing, you know, whether it's moving cars
53:45
like United specifically does or anything else.
53:49
I mean, everything that we use, you know, physically needs to be
53:52
transported from one place to another, right?
53:55
And so, right, rather than sort of, you know, bemoaning, you
54:00
know, this, you know, this annoyance that's in the middle
54:03
of the road, first, celebrating and appreciating, you know, the
54:07
hard work that they're doing to bring all those goods to us that
54:11
we need. And then two, remembering that
54:14
sort of the human side of this, which is kind of what you were
54:16
touching on that. And there's somebody there, you
54:19
know, who is a father, a mother, you know, a, a spouse, a
54:24
sibling, you know, that that people care about and want to
54:28
have come home safely. And so they're doing their best
54:33
out there and and I love what you sort of gave voice to there
54:36
about, you know, they've been trained very well that, you
54:39
know, keep that safe distance there.
54:41
And when the, you know, crazy aggressive drivers come in, they
54:44
continue to back down, they don't get aggressive in return.
54:48
And that takes, I think a great deal of patience for somebody
54:51
who they're not just driving, you know, 10 minutes across town
54:55
to get from home to the office. You know, they're doing these
54:57
long haul drives and they're having to kind of endure those,
55:02
I don't know, kind of death by 1000 paper cuts every day.
55:05
Right, Absolutely. You know, you get irresponsible
55:08
people on the road and and again, we're heavily regulated
55:12
industry, you get weigh stations, you get inspected by
55:17
dot officials. It's a tough job out there.
55:21
And you know, if we as a society could make it easier on them,
55:27
that'd be better. I like that.
55:28
It's a great reminder for me. I've been guilty of doing that
55:31
before pulling into that safety zone before now.
55:34
Now that we've talked about that, I'm going to be more
55:36
mindful of that going forward. So if nothing else, you, you
55:40
planted a giant seed in my brain.
55:42
So thanks for that, Eric. So I've just got one more
55:45
question for you today. But before I ask it, I want to
55:48
do 2 things. First, I'm going to invite
55:49
everybody to go ahead and hit the follow button on your
55:52
favorite podcast app. We've had a really nice
55:54
interview today with Eric Madison from United Rd.
55:57
Learned a lot of really interesting things about the
55:59
business and the transportation industry in general, and I want
56:02
to make sure you continue to get more great content like this.
56:05
Eric. I also want to let people know
56:07
the best way to either get in touch with you or to continue
56:10
following your story. What would that be?
56:14
You know, you LinkedIn is probably the best way to to
56:18
reach out. You know, we get in messages
56:22
quite a bit. I'm happy to field any of those
56:25
as it come. That's awesome.
56:26
And we'll include a, a link to that in the show notes.
56:30
So Eric, we've had a really good conversation here today hoping
56:33
to, you know, have the opportunity to stay in touch
56:35
with you. Let's say, you know, a year from
56:37
now, we're sitting down and you're celebrating something,
56:39
very excited about it. What's that thing that you're
56:41
celebrating? The thing that I'm celebrating
56:45
is a further decline in in all of our safety metrics.
56:51
Now let me clarify the word decline.
56:53
Our scores getting better, incidences going down, you know,
56:58
leveraging our, the telematics that I'm talking about,
57:03
leveraging our training in seeing just our people being
57:09
safer and safer and getting home when they need to be.
57:13
That's really so much what, what drives me in, in so many of the
57:18
conversations I have. You know, the human resources
57:21
and the, the recruiting parts of this business are, are very
57:25
important for the business itself and it keeps us moving.
57:29
But the safety part effects everybody, just simply
57:33
everybody. So I want to see us continue to
57:36
celebrate those victories. I love that that's your answer
57:40
and that's where so much of your focus is.
57:42
Eric Madison from United Rd. I want to be the first to thank
57:45
you for sharing both your time and your story with us today.
57:48
I really appreciate it. Thank you, Anthony.
57:50
I appreciate you. Folks, that's a wrap on another
57:53
episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
57:55
Thanks for learning with us today.